Accomplishments

Designated as “the Official cancer center of the state of New Mexico” by the state legislature in 1971 and received special commendation from the state legislature in 2003 and 2005.

Achieved recognition as a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in October 2005. We competitively renewed our NCI designation in 2010. In 2015, we achieved designation as a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest designation awarded by the NCI.

Recruited world-class physicians and scientists to New Mexico to form the state’s largest team of cancer specialists, with 130 board-certified cancer physicians and 130 research scientists.

Increased the funding from federal, state and private sources for cancer research programs from $22 million to almost $60 million annually.

Established formal research partnerships with Sandia National Laboratories (genomics, high speed computing, drug discovery, nanotechnology), Los Alamos National Laboratory (novel radioisotopes), Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (inhalation therapeutics, lung cancer prevention and research) and New Mexico State University (chemistry, drug discovery).

About 40 percent of patients are from outside Bernalillo county and patients come from every county in the state.

Created a wide variety of clinical and educational programs to reach out to all of our state’s multicultural populations, including outreach and training in Native American communities with the UNM Center for Native American health, and outreach to our Hispanic communities with Ventanilla de Salud and other programs.

First to offer Tomotherapy in 2005 and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in 2010. These newer technologies allow our radiation oncology team to deliver more effective radiation doses in far fewer treatments and to precisely target tumor tissues, thereby minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues.

Achieved designation as one of only nine National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers for Molecular Discovery and one of only 10 NIH national centers for systems biology.

Achieved designation as one of only seven dedicated Centers of Excellence in the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biology Consortium, under the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Program.

Partnered with Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., to open a radioisotope production center in our Cancer Treatment and Clinical Research Facility. This center allows us to produce medically useful isotopes, which are a critical component of powerful cancer diagnosis and treatment methods.

Opened a beautiful state-of-the-art comprehensive cancer treatment and clinical research Facility in August of 2009. This five-story, $100 million, 206,432 sq. ft. facility is designed to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their families in a healing, safe environment.